The present invention relates to the general field of circular needling tables for making a needled textile structure from an annular fiber preform.
It is known to use a needling table of circular type for fabricating annular textile structures that are to constitute the fiber reinforcement of annular parts made of composite material, in particular brake disks, such as the disks made of carbon/carbon (C/C) composite material for airplane brakes.
A circular needling table generally includes a horizontal annular platen on which an annular fiber preform is placed, drive means (usually friction drive means) for driving the fiber preform in rotation about the axis of the platen, and a needling device having a needling head that extends over an angular sector of the platen and that is driven with vertical reciprocating motion relative to the platen. Reference may be made to document WO 02/088451, which describes an embodiment of such a needling table.
With such a table there is a problem of positioning the first layer of the fiber preform under the needling head, given that the first layer is floppy. The same applies to the following layers if they are not properly aligned under the needling head, such that the resulting textile structure generally presents edges that are not properly continuous and clean. In addition, on passing under the needling head, the material tends to spread out towards the edges (creep phenomenon).